Pierces Reasoning - Assignment Example

Pierce’s ReasoningEarly in his article, Pierce provides a definition for a clear idea as being something that “is so apprehended that it will be recognized wherever it is met with, and so that no other will be mistaken for it” (85). After criticizing the fuzziness of this definition, he indicates that the logicians have attempted to clarify their position with the concept of distinctness: “which contains nothing which is not clear” (85). In investigating these definitions, Pierce is claiming that the language of logic no longer makes sense because it is unable to form these clear and distinct ideas within the realm of abstract modern thought.

There is a difference, he asserts, between an idea seeming to be clear and one that is actually clear. In the modern age, his argument is that we need a new basis on which to base our ideas rather than the unstable construction of Descartes’ clear and distinct concept. In attempting to discover something more concrete than Descartes’ ‘clear and distinct’ perception on which to base knowledge, Pierce argues that “thought is a thread of melody running through the succession of our sensations” (88) in much the same way that a musical performance runs through the notes of the score.

The purpose of thought is to find a resting point at the point of belief which he defines as “the demicadence which closes a musical phrase in the symphony of our intellectual life” (88). According to Pierce, belief has three properties which are something that we are aware of, something that appeases the irritation of doubt and something that fosters the development of a habit. This development of a habit then incites further thought in action because it introduces new questions for doubt and starts the whole cycle over again.

In claiming that two hypotheses that make the same predictions and lead to the same actions are identical, it is unfair to say that Pierce intends that the contents of the meaning are the same. What he is attempting to address in his article are the methods of thought and the means by which we arrive at our beliefs rather than attempting to claim that all beliefs are the same. One of the primary elements that we tend to leave out of our consideration but that plays a large role in our understandings is our conception of the effects of our ideas – the concrete elements cannot be ignored regardless of our originating hypothesis.

He uses the example of the Protestant and the Catholic sacrament in which one believes it to be the body and the blood in spirit and the other believes it to be transmuted into actuality by the blessing of the priest. And yet both admit that the concrete elements hold it to be wine and wafer. Without taking the concrete elements and understandings into consideration, one cannot arrive at any element of the truth. Instead of this, Pierce indicates that the process of science has given us some hints as to how to move forward to a more clear understanding of truth.

In the scientific world, individuals follow numerous different paths of inquiry, constantly testing their conclusions and proving them adequate or inadequate for the formation of belief based on real effects and actions. This is a good way to solve the demon problem, but not if one attempts to eliminate or ignore the effects as they exist.